New Year Resolutions: Become Your Best Self

It’s that time of the year again, new year resolutions! According to U.S. News & World Report, 80% of people fail their resolutions. I myself is definitely in that category as well. Every year for the past four years, I’ve made new year resolutions. Every year for the past four years, I’ve failed them.

The thing is, it’s ridiculously difficult. We have other priorities in life that doesn’t magically go away because of a new year. Adding in another long-term goal on top is burdening. It’s already hard enough to accomplish the goals we set one year ago. Forget accomplishing additional goals that we’ve set.

As someone who is phenomenal at failing goals, let’s set realistic ones and actually achieve them in the upcoming year. 2020 has been a year of abnormality, to say the least.

It was so turbulent that I lost the goals that I set and don’t remember which ones I set. As the vaccine becomes more readily available, we are closer to being back on course. Let’s hope there’s no new strand in the upcoming year.

The most important things in your life are having genuine relationships, health, and wealth, in that order. Back when I was in elementary school, I remember a governmental speaker came up to speak to us. I don’t remember who he was or what he talked about all I remember is this.

In life, the most important people besides family, you’ll count with just one hand. It’s very easy to lose touch because life gets in the way.

I don’t remember what else he said but I remember how that quote made me feel. It’s something I remember even decades later and rings true today. The ones who have stuck by me, I will continuously be fiercely loyal to them. Don’t forget about your biggest supporters.

New Year Resolutions List

There are a large variety of goals that you can set for yourself in the next year. I can be your personal guinea pig so you can judge and see whether I achieve them or not. Or if you are looking for some ideas to put into your resolutions as well, I’m listing them right here. Hopefully you and I both achieve them or at the very least, come very close to achieving them.

In the past, when I was an avid reader, I used to prioritize and emphasize reading. I LOVE reading, because it’s where I learned the most. Someone out there spent years of their life studying and experiencing a topic.

Putting in hours and hours of their precious and valuable time to find out an answer. And just for $10, and even less if you buy used, you have access to that knowledge.

That is what I call a steal. The downside is that you’ll have to invest time to understand and let it soak in. However, it’s well worth it. I’ve learned so much from negotiation, body language, and much more.

Even though I met my book goal in 2018, in 2019 I spectacularly failed and read a grand total of…! Zero books. Bummer. It’s time to start back up again.

Read 10 Books

I’m disappointed in myself that in 2019 and 2020 I failed to read any interesting books. Every 2 weeks I would start on a completely new book learning completely different things in 2018. From my 2018 new year resolutions, I actually met this goal. In 2019 and 2020, I wanted to continue to have an edge over others by consistently reading and I failed.

Well no more! If every 2 weeks, I can read a book, that means I can read 26 books in total. Excluding holidays and vacation times. That means reading 10 books a year should be a walk in the park. I encourage you to join me in this journey, it will be a fascinating year. You will gain so many different perspectives and notice small yet significant differences in how you see the world.

It’s one thing to live on Earth with 1 perspective without knowing about other interesting perspectives’ existence. It’s a completely whole other ballgame to live on Earth while knowing the other perspectives.

I will be planning on reading books ranging from becoming a better writer, negotiating, and business books. The most interesting book I read so far was learning about a sociopath’s perspective about the world. Beyond fascinating. Yes, it sounds uncomfortable but it will teach you so many things about your psychology.

Build Muscle

I’ve always emphasized the importance of health in your personal finance journey. Therefore, it seems wrong to exclude in a new year resolutions list. In 2020, thanks to the pandemic, I was more cognizant of my calorie intake. Experimenting eating which foods will make me gain or lose weight was easy to see. I had crystal clear vision.

It was so rewarding to see my weight go down from a high of 172 to 154 pounds. I had never felt so proud. My BMI is much closer to the middle of 21.5 and I feel so much better overall.

Now that I’ve cut down on my weight, the next step in the journey is to build muscle. I love lifting weights and I am hoping to lift weights 3x a week in 2021 as soon as it is safe to do so. Maybe it’ll take 2 years before building significant muscle, we will see.

Write a Minimum of Two Posts a Week

Many of you might not know this but this isn’t my first personal finance blog. The first personal finance blog actually failed after 7 months completely because of me. I moved to a new city, new job, new department, and it was too stressful to keep at it. It would have been easy to put out half quality content, but I didn’t want to do that.

In this current blog, however, I promise to never give up. I will consistently post twice a week every Monday and Friday. Without fail and no exceptions. There’s already two month’s worth of posts lined up and ready to go. The goal is to write three times a week but why shoot for the sun? Better to shoot for the moon and reach it then reach for the sun and get burned.

It means you can depend and rely on this blog to be fresh with new content every Monday and Friday. I don’t want to let you guys down. Out of all my new year resolutions, I’m the most excited about keeping this one, actually.

Expand My Network

My last new year resolutions all centered primarily around building wealth, saving money, and doing a good job at work. It didn’t focus on building new relationships, whether outside or inside the workplace. One of my 2021 goals will be to maintain and keep the deep relationships that I already have. The other will be to expand the people who I talk with.

The personal finance journey can be lonely at the start. Multiple people might shun or judge you from their social group because of your perceived obsession with money. As the personal savings rate in America averages around 6-10%, saving 50% of your income means you are an outcast.

As with any person who’s belong to a social circle before, if you are not the average, you are not the norm. You may not be welcome. Some of the people I hung out with weirdly was concerned that I ordered a small dish for dinner. I would be called out and I ultimately decided to leave that social group. Although I didn’t want to, it was best for the both of us.

The great thing is, I’m making noticeable results in my personal finance journey. I now feel that I have excess and a margin of safety before I go bust. With excess means security and with security means less worrying about the future. 2021 seems to be a great year to reap the fruits of my labor.

New Year Resolutions Take Work

There’s not a single person you’ll meet who’ll say “my new year resolutions were achieved in 6 months”. The people who do say that usually don’t set high enough of a standard. It may even be goals that they were already in the progress of achieving. The point of a new year resolution is to start fresh to build on last year’s life. Not to continue doing the same things.

We can’t expect our lives to have different results if we do the same things. Variety is the spice of life. However, if you are content with your life already, doing the same thing is the way to go. More power to you.

One thing that I am not changing is continuing to automate my investments and continue investing. I started 2020 with a net worth of $200,000 and I am on track to finish the year with a net worth of $300,000. It used to take me FOREVER to increase my net worth by an extra $100,000. These days, it just takes a year.

That is the power of compound interest. It may start off slow, and boy was it slow, but towards the end, it takes off like a rocket ship. Before, I would be happy when a 1% increase in the S&P 500 would net me an extra $100. These days, I’m ludicrously happy that a 1% increase in the S&P nets me an extra $1,700.

It is also a given that I will be shooting to increase my net worth in 2021 as well. Fingers crossed and hope you achieve all your new year resolutions as well.